I wanted to ask about this strange experience at the hands of a garage, and whether anyone has known similar.
I took my car to a large, tidy-looking independent for a full service plus MoT a couple of years ago. When I collected it, the mech talked me through the recommendations for things that would need to be looked-at. He said the differential was badly worn, and that it would give-out in the near future.
This struck me as odd since it hadn't given any trouble before, but sure enough when I drove off, it was making a noticeable rumbling noise which it hadn't before. I considered booking it in straight away to have the work done, but it got put off for a while. Strangely, the rumbling got quieter over time and eventually went away completely. It hasn't given a hint of trouble since (~2.5 years and 25 k miles).
I just wonder what the guy did to provoke such a bad noise from the diff? Do you think he was deliberately mistreating the car to try to cause a fault to be fixed? Thanks for any views.
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Was the noise reallly coming from the diff? Strange noises can be very misleading.
Example, this week I took my Panda 4x4 onto snowy roads and was convinced by noises produced that exhaust had blown. Looked underneath and the only anomaly was a build up of impacted ice around the propshaft. Removed it and the noise disappeared.
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Can you possibly recall if they rotated the tyres during the service?
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I don't know if garages mistreat cars in order to create faults, that would seem a hard way to go about it when a dishonest mechanic could do it on the ramp, but I saw an amazing example of mistreatment a few weeks ago when a car came past me round a bend at such a dangerous speed that I honestly thought it was in a car chase with the cops - "see you at the lights, numpty" I thought - although I think it was another word that came to mind.
Sure enough he was caught at the lights and drove off with spinning wheels into the distance and I saw him again a couple of miles later parked up on the forecourt of an indy that I have used in the past and thought were pretty straight.
If the mods will allow I will post the name of the garage as I'd hate to have my car abused like that. {Sorry, but no. DD}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/01/2008 at 03:55
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If the mods will allow I will post the name of the garage
Show and shame is perhaps too much of an obvious play on name and shame ;-).
Dad had a punctured spare (with nail) pointed out by an independant on the first service following the demise of the local Rover dealership. Funnily enough he'd never suffered a flat and was the only driver.
A friend had brand new bicycle pads swapped with cheap alternatives when having a chain replaced.
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there's a one man band mechanic near me, who's a pleasant enough chap and i've lived here long enough to pass the time of day with...but..couldn't possibly use him for anything...because he starts up customers cars and drives them up the road at a right old rate in the gears before they're properly warmed up, makes me cringe... and worry what else he does/doesn't do
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^ I worry about the car getting thrashed from cold too. I always get the MoT done directly at a testing station rather than via a garage which takes it to the station for you; at least that's one less chance of it getting abused and you can get it tested while the engine's still warm.
Anyway, my face is red, I just checked the invoice and BW was spot-on - I had both rear tyres replaced and no doubt had the tyres rotated - well diagnosed! At least it apparently fooled the mechanic as well ;)
Thanks for the responses.
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